Hopes and Fears
by Lady Razorsharp
Summary: Life is about to change for Cait and Hawke...and Cait's not quite sure how she feels about it. Oneshot.


AN: I don't own Airwolf; Mr. Bellasario and Universal do.

Hopes and Fears

By Lady Razorsharp

"Stringfellow Hawke!"

His full name, along with his wife's strident tone, made the man in question stop short just beyond the office door. He backtracked until he was standing in the doorway and gave her a puzzled look.

"Get in here; I want to talk to you," she snapped.

Hawke bit back an irritated retort and reminded himself silently that he loved this woman, had agreed to spend the rest of his life with her, and that whatever was wrong, they'd see it through together. He stepped into the office, trying to keep his expression neutral. "What's up?"

Caitlin Hawke glared at her husband of fourteen months, her eyes flashing aquamarine fire at the man whose ring she wore on her slender left hand. "'What's up?'" she fired back at him. "_'What's up?_' That's _all_ you have to say at a time like this?"

Hawke frowned at the invective in his wife's voice. "At a time like what?"

'Honestly, Hawke, sometimes I wonder about you." Caitlin sighed. "I mean, I love you, but good grief, sometimes I really do wonder about you."

"What are you talking about?" Hawke's ice-blue eyes went hooded in challenge. He gestured toward where the JetRanger sat in the bay surrounded by several key pieces of its innards. "You know we've got a shoot on Friday, and you know we're swamped. If there's something wrong, just tell me. If all you want to do is yell at me, we can do that at home-not while I'm trying to work."

At that moment, Dominic walked into the office, took one look at Caitlin's stormy expression and the tension in Hawke's shoulders, and did an immediate about-face back into the hangar.

Hawke stared at his wife for a moment more, and then turned to shut the door with a little more force than necessary. He turned back to Caitlin, raising an eyebrow in a gesture that said _Well?___

"You wanna know something?" she began hotly. "Ever since I've known you, I've always been in trouble."

"'Trouble?'"

"Don't gimme that static," Caitlin snarled. "You know what I'm talking about." She broke away, arms folded over her chambray shirt embroidered with the patriotic _Santini Air_ logo. "Since I've known you, I've been shot at, assaulted, thrown in jail without due process of law, hijacked-"

Hawke's expression turned incredulous. "How could your plane getting hijacked be my fault? Besides, _I_ was the one who rescued you!"

"Damnit, Hawke, you're changing the subject!" Caitlin paced the length of the cramped office. "Every time I get into an aircraft, I'm nearly blown out of the sky! I get chased by the KGB, the CIA-hell, the IRS is probably after me too!"

"Now you're just exaggerating," said Hawke, holding onto his temper with both hands. "You've logged hundreds of hours in the air without an incident."

Caitlin stopped pacing and stared unseeing out the window into the hangar bay. "Practically the only time I'm safe is when I'm in Airwolf." She scoffed. "That is, whenever I can get into the boy's club that y'all seem to have." She whirled on Hawke, who frowned. "You two are in love with that machine, and don't you try to deny it!"

Hawke rolled his eyes. "Is that what this is about? You're jealous of _Airwolf?_ Of a _machine?_"

"Yes!" Caitlin shook her head, her copper hair flying. "I mean, no!" She pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes tightly shut. "I mean-Oh, I don't know _what_ I mean." She turned away to hide her tears, and Hawke's expression softened.

"Cait, come on." He grip her shoulders gently and turned her to face him. One corner of his mouth quirked in a smile. "I thought Texas girls were tough. Especially cops."

"We are," Caitlin sniffled and managed a half-hearted grin. "Like I told someone once, I know karate, and I give free samples."

Hawke chuckled. "Yeah, I've seen you do that. I think I'll pass." He drew her into his arms and hugged her, but didn't resist when she pulled away after a few moments.

Caitlin sighed. "I'm sorry for what I said just now. I signed on with you for better or worse, and I meant it."

"Apology accepted," he said simply.

"And I'm not jealous of Airwolf," she continued. "Truth is, I love flying her just as much as you do."

"I know." He smiled and stroked a thumb over her freckled cheek, wiping away her tears. "You mind telling me what this is all about?"

"String," said Caitlin, raising tear-filled eyes to his. "What I'm trying to tell you—and not doing a very good job of it—is that—well—" She blew out a breath. "We're going to have a baby."

His eyebrows shot up. "You're serious."

She laughed through a new round of tears. "Very serious. I just found out this morning."

A grin spread over Hawke's face, and he took Caitlin's face in his hands and kissed her gently.

As if on cue, Dom burst into the office, a scowl on his face. "All right, you two, if you don't kiss and make up-" He stopped in his tracks, saw that his foster son and the woman who he loved like his own daughter were doing just that, and shut his mouth. "Well, that's better,' he harrumphed.

The couple broke their kiss and laughed. Hawke turned around and grinned at Dom. "Cait's got something to tell you."

"What, _me_? Why do _I_ have to be the one to—" She smiled wryly at her smirking husband. "Just for that, you can spend the night in the Lair with your girlfriend."

Dom raised his eyes to the ceiling in wordless entreaty to the patron saint of impossible people. "Would one of you please tell me what's going on?"

Caitlin smiled. "Dom, you're going to be an uncle."

"An uncle?" Dom echoed, and then understanding dawned in his green eyes. "You mean you're—" He broke into a wide, gap-toothed grin as Caitlin nodded. "Hey, that's wonderful!" He caught Caitlin up in a hug as she threw her arms around his neck. "Congratulations, sweetheart." He let her sink gently to the floor, then turned to his foster son with a hand outstretched, and then caught Hawke around the shoulders in a fatherly hug. "Aw, congratulations, String."

"Thanks, Dom." Hawke smiled; the only thing that would have made the moment perfect was if Saint John had been there to share the news.

Dom let go of Hawke and brought out a handkerchief. "Ah, me," he said, wiping his eyes. "Gonna be different around here pretty soon. No more dashing off whenever the White Wonder calls. You'll be trading spy missions for two-o'clock feedings."

"I'll still be working for a while," Caitlin insisted. "You're not gonna chase me off that easy."

"Well you can kiss flying around in Airwolf goodbye," Dom retorted. "It's way too dangerous."

Immediately, Caitlin's elfin features crumpled, and she ran from the office.

"Caitlin!" Hawke called after her.

Dom sighed. "I'm sorry, String. I didn't mean it like that."

Hawke patted the older man's shoulder. "She knows that, Dom. I'll go talk to her." He left the office and went into the bay, just in time to see Caitlin slam the door to the ___Santini Air_ Jeep and peel out.

_"Caitlin!"___

At the sound of Hawke's voice, Dom hurried into the bay. "What the-" He watched as the patriotic-painted Jeep became a colorful dot in the distance. "Where's she going?"

Hawke scowled. "Where do you think?"

***

It seemed like an eternity to Hawke before he reached the Lair in the second Jeep, but finally he entered the Valley of the Gods. He cast an eye to the sky and made sure it was clear before he pulled into the mouth of the massive cavern where Airwolf lay hidden. Sure enough, the SA Jeep was parked just outside the circle of light streaming down from the funnel above. Hawke shut off the Jeep and climbed out, folding his aviator sunglasses away and sticking them in his pocket as he walked toward the sleek, deep-gray helicopter.

He knocked on the copilot-side Plexiglass window. "Cait."

Sitting in the pilot's seat, Caitlin popped the seal so Hawke could open the copilot-side door. "I should've hung up a sign: _Girls Only._"

Hawke snorted and swung up into the seat. "That was a dumb move back there, taking off like that," he said sternly.

"Dom's right," said Caitlin, as if she hadn't heard him. "No more flying for a while." She let her gaze fall to the dimmed instrument panel. "Maybe not ever. Kids take up a lot of time, and you gotta make sure nothing happens to you, and..." she trailed off, wrapping her arms protectively around her middle as her husband's words finally sank in. "Oh, man. That _was _a dumb move."

Hawke pushed away the mental image of the Jeep on the side of the road in a riot of star-spangled scrap metal, and traded it for an older, more bearable pain. "Life's dangerous enough, Cait-even without pulling stunts like that," he said, the edges of his voice ragged. "My parents weren't being reckless, and still they died. We were on vacation up at the lake, and some drunk idiot pulling his girlfriend on waterskis collided with their boat."

"I remember you telling me about that," Caitlin said quietly. "I guess what Dom said about Airwolf just got to me." She reached out for the comforting warmth of his hand in hers. "Not because I'm jealous-well, maybe a _little_-but my God, Hawke, if something happened to you, I don't know if I could stand it."

"Cait..." Hawke sighed. "Being in danger doesn't just mean dodging MiGs in Airwolf."

"That's what my head's trying to tell me." Caitlin shrugged. "So far, it hasn't convinced the rest of me."

Hawke smiled. "You think you're alone in this? I worry that you could step off the curb tomorrow and get hit by an RTD bus in downtown Van Nuys. _But_," he said, raising a hand to arrest Cait's indignant splutter. "I know you're smarter than that."

"You're darn right, I am," Caitlin huffed.

"So am I. And so is Dom." He smirked at her. "If memory serves, it's when we're around _you_ that things happen."

She shot him a look. "_Please. _Now where's the truth in that, huh?"

"Well, think about it. Ever since I've met you, I've been in trouble." He let one corner of his mouth curl in a boyish grin; he knew she could never resist it. "I've been shot at, arrested, beat up, punched out, thrown in jail without due process of law..."

"You can stop now," Cait said tartly, but she was smiling.

"What I'm saying," he continued, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand, "is that I signed on with you for better or worse-and _I _meant it, too. We can't live our lives in a vacuum, though. My folks didn't wake up that morning knowing they were gonna die."

Cait looked at the floor for a moment, and then glanced back up at her husband, her chin trembling. "I'm scared, String. I'm so happy I could just bust-and at the same time, I'm scared to death."

"I know." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Me too."

Caitlin let her eyes wander to the myriad of switches, buttons and dials above her head. "All I can say is that the Lady better take good care of my guys," she murmured.

Suddenly, there was a shift in the air pressure in the cockpit; almost as if the weight of a presence-invisible yet benevolent-was inside the craft with them, wrapping them in a blanket of peace. The hair on the back of Hawke's neck stood straight up, and Caitlin shivered.

"I think the Lady just gave us her blessing," she breathed.

Hawke smiled. "Yeah."

-End-


End file.
